Science and Engineering of Natural Systems Group

We are all enmeshed in a variety of large-scale social, informational, and technological systems: consider the internet, the UK's National Health Service, or the global economy. When we try to create or alter these systems, they don't always behave the way we want them to. Traditional top-down design methodologies that work well in simpler cases run into trouble with both the complexity and the scale of such problems. New approaches are needed if we want to create information technology networks that are robust, scalable, and adaptable.

Biology gives us the best-known examples of complex systems with these kinds of properties. The organisation of cells in an animal, termites in a colony, or species in an ecosystem provide compelling models of what must be possible, and advances in biology are rapidly expanding our knowledge of living systems at all scales.

The Science and Engineering of Natural Systems (SENSe) group exploits the interface between technology and biology. It undertakes fundamental research into the science and engineering of computational methods that can further our understanding of biological and other natural systems, and also into the development and application of novel computational systems and techniques that are inspired by nature.

Latest News

A working robot controlled by a slime mould, and designed and built in ECS-Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton, will play a starring role in a major BBC4/Discovery Channel feature to be aired in the autumn.